Beth Harmon is only nine years old when she discovers chess game
Her wit and clearvoyance lead her through one of the oldest board game
Cold and invicible she manages to defeat the hardest players of her time
Until she finally meets the best players like the young Benny Watts and the russian Borgov
Elizabeth "Beth" Harmon is a chess prodigy and the main character in the Netflix miniseries, The Queen's Gambit. Orphaned at a young age and scarred from Methuen Home's mistreatment, she is depicted as someone with immense anger and passion, which fuels her chess proficiency—and her susceptibility to substance addiction. While she accepts herself as someone who breaks gender norms, Harmon has expressed irritation with being renowned solely because of her gender. She experiences difficulty forming relationships with others that are not based on chess because of this.In addition to chess, Harmon maintains skills in mathematics, sciences, and history. Over the course of five years, she acquires a knowledge of Russian, which allows her to eavesdrop on gossip by people who assume she cannot.Harmon is played predominantly by Anya Taylor-Joy, and she is played by Annabeth Kelly as a five-year-old and Isla Johnston for other younger scenes.
Beth is a complicated woman and many of the show’s episodes revolves around this. The characters complexity is shown numerous times throughout the series as her destructive nature reaches the surface when she feels as if her past lost games have ruined her reputation. The audience then sees another side to Beth Harmon, as not only an addictive personality with destructive tendencies but also an incredibly competitive player, resulting in a character flaw, as its unknown what she will do and the lengths she will go to in order to win. Due to the fact that she has been addicted to pills at such a young age the exact same theme of her life is brought up time and time again, which as a viewer is fascinating to see her, as more than just a sharp and intelligent young woman but also as a human being with psychological trauma, and tendencies.